SaaS Trial Boost
A template for SaaS products where new users start on a trial. The referred person gets an extended trial rather than a discount, and the referrer gets account credit once that person converts to a paid plan — which keeps the cost tied to revenue that actually arrived.
- Referrer reward
- One month of account credit at their current plan rate
- Referred reward
- Trial extended from 14 to 30 days
- Trigger
- In-product, after the user completes the core activation action for the second time
- Qualifying event
- Referred user's first successful subscription payment
- Eligibility
- Referrer must be on a paid plan; referred user must have no prior account on the same domain
- Payout
- Credit applied at the referrer's next billing date after the referred payment clears
Why this template is shaped this way
An extended trial is close to free to give and removes the objection a trial user actually has, which is time rather than price. A discount instead trains the referred user to expect a lower rate at renewal.
Paying the referrer in account credit costs near marginal cost and only has value to someone who intends to keep using the product — which quietly filters for referrals from committed users.
Triggering on the second activation event rather than the first avoids asking someone who has not yet seen the product work.
Where this template goes wrong
Three ways, all preventable: one company harvesting credit through many departments, credit big enough to make churn-and-re-refer profitable, and trials that stack forever. Domain eligibility and two explicit caps close all three.
- Domain-based eligibility is essential in B2B — without it, one company signs up department by department and collects each time
- Credit that exceeds a month's fee turns into an incentive to churn and re-refer
- Trial extensions stack if you let them; cap the total trial length explicitly
Should the referred user get a discount instead of a longer trial?
Usually not. A discount sets an expectation about price that carries into renewal, while a longer trial addresses the real barrier for a trial user, which is not having had time to evaluate properly.
When should the referrer be paid?
After the referred user's first successful subscription payment. Paying at trial signup rewards volume and pays for users who never convert.
- UK Advertising Standards Authority / CAP — CAP Code section 8, Promotional marketing — how a promotion's terms must be stated
Last reviewed 9 August 2026.
Launch this template
ReferralFlo handles the tracking, reward rules and payout timing this specification describes — without engineering time.